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REPLY OF THE UNITED STATES TO THE COM- 
MUNICATION OF THE POPE TO THE BELLIGER- 
ENT GOVERNMENTS. 

August -27, 1017. 
To His Holiness Be:nedictus XV. Pope. 

In acknowledgement of the communication of Your Holiness to 
the belligerent peoples, dated August 1, 1917, the President of the 
United States requests me to transmit the following reply : 

Ever}' heart that has not been blinded and hardened by this ter- 
rible war must be touched by this moving appeal of His Holiness 
the Pope, must feel the dignity and force of the humane and generous 
motives which prompted it, and must fervently wish that we might 
take the path of peace he so persuasively points out. But it would 
be folly to take it if it does not in fact lead to the goal he proposes. 
Our response must be based upon the stern facts and upon nothing 
else. It is not a mere cessation of arms he desires ; it is a stable and 
enduring peace. This agony must not be gone through with again, 
and it must be a matter of very sober judgment what will insure us 
against it. 

His Holiness in substance proposes that we return to the status 
quo ante helium, and that then there be a general condonation, dis- 
armament, and a concert of nations based upon an acceptance of the 
principle of arbitration; that by a similar concert freedom of the 
seas be established; and that the territorial claims of France and 
Italy, the perple:^ing problems of the Balkan States, and the restitu- 
tion of Poland be left to such conciliator}^ adjustments as may be 
possible in the new temper of such a peace, due regard being paid 
to the aspirations of the peoples whose political fortunes and affilia- 
tions will be involved. 

It is manifest that no part of this program can be successfully 
carried out unless the restitution of the status quo ante furnishes a 
firm and satisfactory basis for it. The object of this war is to de- 
liver the free peoples of the world from the menace and the actual 
power of a vast military establishment controlled by an irrespon- 
sible government which, having secretly planned to dominate the 
world, proceeded to carry the plan out without regard either to the 
sacred obligations of treaty or the long-established practices and 
long-cherished principles of international action and honor; which 

12117—17 



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ohose Its own tune lor the wur; delivered its blow fiercely" and sud- 
denly: stopped at no barrier either of law or of mercy; swept a 
whole continent within the tide of blood — not the l)lood of soldiers 
only, but the blood of innocent women and children also and of the 
helpless poor: and now stands ])alked but not defeated, the enemy 
of four-fiftlis of the world. This power is not the (Terman people. 
It is the i-uthless master of the German people. It is no business of 
<;nrs how that ,i>i-eat people came nnder its control or submitted with 
temporary zest to the domination of its purpose: but it is our busi- 
ness to see to it that the history of the rest of the world is no longer 
left to its handlinii'. 

To deal with such a power l)y way of peace upon the plan pro- 
posed by His Holiness the Pope would, so far as we can see, involve 
a recuperation of its strength and a renewal of its policy: would 
make it necessary to create a permanent hostile combination of na- 
tions against the (iernian people who are its instruments; and would 
result in abandoning the newborn Russia to the intrigue, the mani- 
fold subtle interference, and the certain counter-revolution which 
Avould be attem])ted by all the malign influences to which the German 
Government has of late accustfmied the world. Can peace be based 
upon a restitution of its poAver or uj^on any word of honor it could 
pledge in a treaty of settlement and accommodation ? 

Responsible statesmen must now everywhere see. if they never 
saw before, that no peace can rest securely u])on jiolitical or economic 
restrictions meant to benefit some nations and cripple or embarrass 
othei'S, iipon vindictive action of any sort, or any kind of revenge or 
deliberate injury. The American people have suffered intolerable 
Avrongs at the hands of the Imperial (lerman (iovernment. but 
they desire no reprisal upon the German jieople who have them- 
selves suifered all things in this war which they did not choose. 
They believe that peace should rest upon the rights of peoples, not 
the rights of Governments — the rights of peopled great or small, 
weak or ])owerful — -their equal right to freedom and security and 
self-government and to a participation upon fair terms in the 
economic opportunities of the world, the German people of course 
included if they will accept equality and not seek domination. 

The test, therefore, of every plan of peace is this: Is it based upon 
the faith of all the peoples involved or merely upon the word of an 
am]>itious and intriguing government on the one hand and of a 
group of free peoples on the other? This is a test which goes to 
ihe root of the matter; and it is the test which must be applied. 

The purposes of the United States in this war are known to the 
whole world, to every people to whom the truth has been permitted 
to come. They do not need to be stated again. We seek no material 
^idvantage of any kind. We believe that the intolerable wrongs 

D. of 1). 
SEP 24 1917 



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(.lone in this war by the furious and brutal power of the Imperial 
German Government ought to be repaired, but not at the expense of 
the sovereignty of any people — rather a vindication of the sover- 
eignty both of those that are weak and of those that are strong. 
Punitive damages, the dismemberment of empires, the establishment 
of selfish and exclusive economic leagues, we deem inexpedient and 
in the end worse than futile, no proper basis for a peace of any kind, 
least of all for an enduring peace. That must be based upon justice 
and fairness and the common rights of mankind. 

We can not take the word of the present rulers of Germany as a 
guaranty of anything that is to endure, unless explicitly supported 
by such conclusive evidence of the will and purpose of the German 
people themselves as the other peoples of the world would be justi- 
fied in accepting. Without such guaranties treaties of settlement, 
agreements for disarmament, covenants to set up arbitration in the 
place of force, territorial adjustments, reconstitutions of small na- 
tions, if made with the German Government, no man, no nation 
could now depend on. We must await some new evidence of the pur- 
poses of the great peoples of the central powers. God grant it may 
be given soon and in a way to restore the confidence of all peoples 
everj^where in the faith of nations and the possibility of a cove- 
nanted peace. 

Robert Lansing, 
Secretamj of State of the United States of America. 



WASHINGTON : GOVERNMENT PRINTING OPFICB : 1917 



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